More is known about
furniture in Egypt than anywhere else in the ancient world.
By the New Kingdom, Egyptian furniture was highly prized
and was often sent as tribute to the rulers of neighboring
countries. Fragments of Egyptian furniture have been
excavated at sites around Western Asia.

Many
Predynastic burials in the Nile valley have the body placed on
wooden poles and covered with a matting made of plant fibre
while some burials are found in primitive wooden boxes. By the
unification of Upper and Lower Egypt we find bed frames were in
common use with many examples being found in 1st dynasty
(3100-2890 BC) tombs. The quality of these bed frames ranged
from conveniently shaped branches that were lashed together, to
sophisticated examples made from rounded poles that were jointed
together and supported on finely carved bovine shaped legs.

At the beginning of the Old
Kingdom, which opens with the 3rd dynasty (2686-2613BC), we see
major advances in building and the associated trade of
carpentry. The quality of royal furniture made during this
period can be seen in those examples discovered by the American
Egyptologist George Reisner, in the 4th dynasty tomb of Queen
Hetepheres (c 2600 BC) at Giza. When he opened the tomb, he
found that the wooden elements from which the furniture had been
made had rotted away to powder. However, it proved possible to
reconstruct much of the Queen's furniture by studying the
positions of the gold sheaths, which had encased the furniture,
and the inlays that had fallen free and lay on the tombs floor.
Hetepheres' furniture consisted of two armchairs, bed frame,
bed canopy, carrying chair and two boxes. What Reisner and his
team achieved, from what appeared to be a pile of unrelated
fragments of gold and faience, is remarkable for it has given us
a small but superb collection of early furniture which rivals
Tutankhamun's which was manufactured over a thousand years
later.

We
see the introduction of the wooden box at the end of the Old
Kingdom. They were manufactured with flat, gable, barrel and
shrine shaped lids. Some were very large and were designed with
a pair of poles that enabled the box to be carried by a team
of porters. In one tomb scene we see such a box being carried by
fourteen men. During the Middle Kingdom we find boxes were
customized to hold cosmetics. Many were designed like crates to
hold small alabaster jars which held perfumed oils. Other boxes
have been found to contain mirrors, kohl containers, combs and
even a pair of slippers! A box made for Sithathoriunet (c 1800
BC) was decorated with gold fittings and bezels in which were
set polished carnelian stones. Other elaborate boxes held
jewellery, these were usually inlaid or veneered with sheets of
ivory or exotic timbers bought from lands south of Egypt.
Scribes even had boxes in which they stored their writing
implements and palette. Their boxes were usually painted to
imitate the stringing and veneered panels found on more ornate
boxes.

Important
directional changes in Middle Kingdom furniture can be seen by
studying the large collection of stelae which are preserved in
the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. These Middle Kingdom stelae show
that tables were widely used for the display of vases or holding
water pots. Many are low with straight legs and have a single
stretcher strung below the table top. We also see that Egyptian
carpenters were constructing splay legged tables which had
cavetto cornice mouldings below the edge of the table top.
Slender vase stands were made from thin strips of timber braced
with cross and angled struts. They were fitted with a shaped
collar which held the round base of a single vase. They were
covered with a gesso foundation before being painted to imitate
carnelian and faience inlay. Those chairs made during the Middle
Kingdom had either short backs over which was draped a cover or
cushion or they had backs of full height. Such chair backs were
curved and made from angled slats of timber. We see that they
stood on slender gazelle-shaped legs. Often chairs were painted
to simulate animal skin which were painted with a technique
which resembles cow skin and was used on an arrow quiver case
which is preserved in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo.

By
the New Kingdom, the homes of officials and nobles would have
been furnished with a wide range of furniture, the most common
of which would have been the stool. Egyptians used a large
number of different types of stool. The most commonly used were
lattice stools that were made from thin struts of timber with
angled braces supporting a double cove seat. Round legged stools
appear in some of the more important Theban tombs. The majority
of legs from these stools were hand rounded although there is a
small corpus of material which have legs that appear to be
turned. During the New Kingdom we see carpenters sitting on
three legged stools which allowed the stool to rest evenly on
the workshop floor. The folding stool originates in the Middle
Kingdom and was made from two interlocking frames with a leather
seat. New Kingdom examples are more elaborate having the floor
rails and crossing spindles finished with carved goose head
terminals which are inlaid with ivory to imitate the eyes and
neck feathers. We also see that lion legged stools and chairs
were used in the homes of high ranking officials.

The furniture manufactured in
the royal workshops were not very different in design to that
used by the middle classes. However, they were exquisitely
embellished with gold sheet, inlaid with colored stones and
faience or veneered with ebony and ivory. They were also adorned
with the uraeus and the symbols of kingship. Other pieces are
inlaid with thousands of slivers of coloured wood in either
marquetry or parquetry patterns. In the tomb of Yuya and Tuyu
(c 1400BC), the parents of Queen Tiy and the wife of Amenhotep
III (1390-1352 BC), was discovered a small armchair made for
Princess Sitamun. The illustrious examples of furniture
discovered in the Tomb of Tutankhamun ( 1336-1327 BC) show the
outstanding quality of design and construction achieved by 18th
dynasty carpenters.